Revelations
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: Vir finds out from Londo what Morden did to Adira, and Londo sees another of his biggest mistakes blow up in his face.


Disclaimer - I don't own Babylon 5.

A/N - I've always had it in my mind Vir would have spoken to Londo after he'd learnt the truth of Adira's death.

A/N 2 - My first Babylon 5 story in a while. Hopefully, I will write more in the future.

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Revelations.

Vir was relieved to be back inside the Palace after spending the last hour taking in the city after the meeting Londo had with the Ministers of War, Intelligence, Transportation and Security. While he was hoping that the plan he and Londo had come up with to save Centauri Prime from the Vorlons mass slaughter of worlds who either supported the Shadows openly or covertly or had simply let them use parts of their world as bases for their ships, Vir had to admit it would be very close.

He only hoped that when the guards looking for Morden came back to the Palace with the human Shadow agent, he'd be reasonable and somehow convince his "associates" the Centauri were no longer allies. The alternative was too terrible to contemplate, and Vir didn't like the thought of Londo being the cause of fresh deaths; Refa he could understand, Cartagia he could understand, but the way Londo had allied himself with Morden and was instrumental of the deaths of so many Narns, starting with that massacre at Quadrant 37, which started the ball running, as the humans said, and made the politically opportunistic Refa begin a plan to take control of Centauri Prime beginning with the assassination of Prime Minister Malachi and installing that madman Cartagia on the throne before that terrible war with the Narns began.

Londo had seen and had been responsible for the deaths of so many whether he wanted to admit it aloud or not; Vir remembered the belligerent manner Londo had thrown around the station, to those other ambassadors when the Centauri fleets began making noise, and he knew that Londo had actually been hiding his fear of what was happening around him through bluster.

But this time was different.

Londo had been wary of the Shadows not long after the Narn-Centauri war had begun and had tried to put some distance between himself and them, and he had tried to make sure Refa had followed his example, just to safeguard the future of the Centauri Republic, though what happened as a result… Vir hated to think about it…

But Vir had agreed with those fears and he had shared Londo's fears, though he had always tried to make sure neither himself nor Morden spend longer than a few seconds with each other.

Vir had met dozens of humans over the course of his career as Londo's assistant, and while he found many of them alternating between exuding arrogance a Centauri would either be proud of or find hard to match, he found that many of them were worthy of his respect.

Morden was the exception. There was just something about him, about his neat appearance and the insincere manner he smiled and spoke like he held the answers to all the problems in the universe to put Vir on edge. That and the air of menace he exuded. But what Vir disliked about him was how he was able to seemingly effortlessly bring out Londo's darker side…. In Vir's mind, the golden days of the Centauri Republic were over. Look what had happened with them in the past; sure, the Republic had been powerful but it had declined and the territories had shrunk. Vir had realised what Londo had failed or ignored to see that if the Republic went back to its old ways, then it would just happen all over again, only this time it might shrink down until the only territory the Centauri had were their own home system.

Pushing those thoughts aside as he walked through the corridors of the Palace, Vir went to find Londo. He'd wanted some time to himself after the meeting he had sat in on and contributed; it never failed to make Vir happy that Londo valued his input even after the way the older Centauri had treated him when they had first met on Babylon 5, which felt like a lifetime ago, but Londo seemed to genuinely want to hear his advice especially after he had witnessed the consequences of ignoring that advice and so many terrible things had happened as a result.

But more importantly, he had wanted to have a chance to look over the capital city before the Vorlons arrived in orbit. If he and his home world were to die, why not take a memory of him seeing the temples, the theatres, the libraries and the art galleries of Centauri Prime with him into the afterlife?

It didn't take long for Vir to find out where Londo was, he just needed to ask a few people and he walked down the familiar corridors to the rooms Londo had been given on accepting his promotion as the Advisor to Planetary Security. Vir had to admit the terrified Centaurum who had caved in after Cartagia had killed off some of its members when he'd agreed to allow the Shadows a base on the Isle of Celini had certainly dressed up the title of "Shadow Ambassador" really well, otherwise Londo would certainly have refused.

But as Vir approached the doors, he frowned when he heard a sound like sobbing coming from inside. For a moment, Vir was tempted to ask one of the two guards posted outside the doors what was going on, but he decided against. Instead he walked through, unafraid they'd try to stop him - they knew he was the Prime Minister's aide, so he could walk in and out whenever he liked, and he stopped in astonishment.

The room was trashed completely and Londo was sitting on one of the chairs, looking through the window at an angle and sobbing his hearts out.

"Londo, wha-what happened?" Vir asked, aghast and he quickly turned and shut the doors.

It took a moment for Londo to realise his assistant and friend was there in the room, and it took slightly longer for Londo to realise what Vir had asked.

"It was not Refa," Londo whispered, his voice still choked with the sobs.

"What was not Refa?" Vir asked, wondering what the deceased and oily politician who had met his end on Narn had to do with this. Lord Antonio Refa had never been one of Vir's favourite people. When Vir had learnt the politically ambitious and forever scheming Refa had not only had Malachi assassinated but had also decided to destroy an entire family, all to fuel his journey to becoming Emperor, he had not felt much sympathy when he had learnt Londo had poisoned him for real in the Zocolo on Babylon 5 to put some distance between himself and Morden, at Londo's request.

Londo took a sobbing breath to calm down. "Refa….had nothing to do with Adira's death," he whispered.

"What? But then who-?" Vir asked before the answer popped into his brain and he answered his own question to make sure he had it right. "Morden?"

Londo just nodded. "He played me, Vir. He played me like a puppet!" he hissed with anger.

"I already knew that, Londo," Vir replied, wondering if he should say what was on his mind now when Londo was upset about the loss of probably the only woman he had ever loved even though he'd had three marriages arranged by his family. But he decided to get it off his chest. "I always had misgivings about Morden long before you began to get them yourself, I'm just glad you tried to distance yourself from Morden and the Shadows when you began hearing what they were capable of."

Londo nodded regretfully.

"When did you find out?" Vir asked, cursing himself for asking such a stupid question since when he had left the palace Londo had firmly believed Refa had been behind the poisoning of Adira Tyree.

"Not long ago. Drano told me."

"The Minister of Intelligence? How would he have known?" Vir asked, wondering if the rumours of Drano knowing everything were true. When he had been younger, his family had strived to teach him the ins and the outs of Centauri politics and who to trust and who to ignore, and who to fear. Drano fitted into the last category perfectly since he probably had access to Purple files more extensive than any family, and could probably bring the Republic to its knees if he wanted since he could probe deeper than the noble families.

"Cartagia was more interested in my feud with Refa than I thought," Londo sighed. "He asked Drano to look into it, and his investigations led him to discover it was Mr Morden who had ordered Adira's death, not Refa."

Vir looked away. He wasn't surprised by Londo's news somehow, it made perfect sense to him when he looked at it from a different angle, though it had also made some sense Refa had been the one who'd ordered Adira's death. In his mind Vir tried to picture how it had gone, he and Londo both knew Morden had been on Babylon 5 around the time the Shadow war had been getting started and they came out of hiding after manipulating events like the Narn-Centauri war and the smaller wars that had plagued the galaxy for a year, and the rumours they had something to do with the Earth President Santiago.

What surprised Vir was that someone as self-interested as Cartagia had been interested in the feud that had grown between Londo and Refa. But that was unimportant now; Refa and Cartagia were both dead. Londo deserved some peace. Though his mind went back to those days during the Shadow war.

Neither Vir nor Londo had any idea what Morden had been doing at the time when the Shadows had emerged. Oh, Londo had told him that Morden was annoyed Refa was no longer speaking to him, so that part of the plan had worked out, but the human had been almost threatening to Londo whereas, in contrast, he had been friendly to Vir, who at the time was busy making arrangements for Adira's arrival….. Oh no.

"Great Maker," he whispered, aghast.

Londo looked up. "What is it?"

"Morden. He was there on Babylon 5 when I was getting everything ready for Adira's arrival," Vir replied, his eyes wide with panic as she realised what must have happened. "He must have found out her… planned to kill her….. and it's my fault."

"No, it wasn't," Londo snapped, angry that his friend and assistant would think that of himself. While Vir had been speaking, Londo had realised that it made perfect sense Morden would find out about Adira from one of the humans who'd been recruited to help Vir get everything ready and perfect for Adira's arrival. "It was not your fault, Vir. If anyone's to blame it's me. I should never have told Morden what I'd wanted during that business with the Eye, I should have never told him to destroy that Narn colony, starting the war. I could have just told Morden I'd gotten what I'd wanted, though the chances are he wouldn't have left me alone."

Londo stood up and sighed as he looked out of the window. He had so much to do, he knew he would need to leave his rooms and continue with his plans to get rid of the Shadows on Centauri Prime; he had worked long and hard to end Cartagia's reign of terror after seeing for himself how much of a hedonistic lunatic he was when the Shadows arrived before he learnt about the rumour of Cartagia have the heads of those who'd made the mistake of crossing him in the Royal Court arranged in a row in a dark and cold room where he would then speak to them in the middle of night (it had turned Londo's stomach when he had seen that the rumour itself was very true, and one of the first things he had done when he had become Prime Minister made sure that room had been emptied and the heads had been returned to their families and Houses so then they could finally be properly buried instead of rotting away in the Palace), just to finalise his plans to have the Emperor assassinated and had made a deal with G'Kar to free his world, all to save Centauri Prime, but this news had shaken him to his core.

"He played me, Vir," Londo whispered, unwilling to let it go despite the genocidal threat of the Vorlons and their mission to destroy worlds affiliated with the Shadows; Morden had told him in the gardens the encounter-suited aliens would never attack and destroy a planet with such a large population but Londo was not convinced.

He was just horrified that Morden and his associates had used him as a pawn for the last two years, and so many lives had been lost as a result. Because of Londo Mollari's connection to them, the Centauri Republic had been able to once again show the galaxy who was in command. But now Londo could see the Shadows didn't care about that, so long as they got what they'd wanted the whole time.

"He had Refa doing his dirty work, and I made things worse," Londo whispered as he tried desperately to get some control back, but he couldn't.

"You were right about Morden, Vir. But I couldn't see it."

For a moment Vir was tempted to throw the Quadrant 14 attack in Londo's face. He had told the older Centauri who had wanted to see the Centauri Republic restored to its old glory he would remind him of what he had done. But his hearts were not in it, and besides with Londo in his current frame of mind, there was no telling how he'd react.

So instead Vir asked, "Have they caught him yet?"

"I don't think so."

"Londo," Vir said, and his serious tone made Londo turn and regard him solemnly. "Don't do anything stupid. I know that because of him Adira's dead, but we need him to try to persuade the Shadows to leave."

Both Centauri knew the chances of Morden doing anything he was told were slim, but they had to try. In the meantime, Vir stayed with Londo to try to help him through this. When a guard knocked on the door and told the Prime Minister the news Morden had been caught, Vir noticed the guard's eyes take in the damage but he didn't comment; sometimes the training given to guards and nobles to ignore or just dismiss what they saw had advantages, otherwise Vir and Londo would be asked foolish questions.

The moment Londo heard the news he stood up and followed the guard. Vir watched them go and hoped that things went well; he didn't care what happened to Morden, especially after learning what the human had done, but he hoped that Londo was not going to make the mistake of dismissing an opportunity to become a better person. He had come close after that business with Urzza Jaddo, a dear old friend who had been persecuted by Refa who had framed him as a traitor to the Republic, but Londo had continued his work with Refa and the Shadows.

Now he hoped Londo had finally learnt from his mistakes, or else he would be doomed to repeat them much like the Centauri Republic.

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Hope you enjoyed it.


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